A home notification system is a sensor network at a residential property, together with a telecommunications notification service. In the olden times--and often, still--it was implemented as a housesitter or babysitter with telephone access. Currently, there exist expensive implementations, via autonomous computer networks and autonomous telecommunications devices.

A first step toward developing automated, aware home notification systems is to gain an understanding of how people experience notifications at home. This paper reports on the understanding gained in a formal experimental field study that is a modification of a prior exploratory study used as a pilot.

There is a discussion of related work, a presentation of a model of the acceptability of notifications, a discussion of the incorporation of research methodologies for online registration of user experiences under natural circumstances, and a discussion of the study design. The report presents the key findings and then gives recommendations for future experiments, as well as for developers of automated considerate notification systems.

Just as with the pilot study, high-urgent messages were found acceptable. This paper goes beyond that, to show that the acceptability of low-urgent and medium-urgent messages may be improved by systems that are aware of user activities and adapt the presentation and timing to the activity context. The updated model of acceptability presented excludes physical activity, social interaction, and urgency of user activities. The preferred timing of messages is found to be directly related to the acceptability of medium-urgent or low-urgent messages to be postponed or not shown at all.

The paper provides researchers and requirements analysts with an excellent example of experimental field study design, analysis, and effective argument from the results.